Beyond Zero in the Media

Dr. Mark Wanlass discusses the award-winning inverted metamorphic multi-junction (IMM) photovoltaic cell

admin — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:17:47 -0700

Listen to Podcast Scott Bilby: We’re keen to listen to our first interviewee for today. That person is Dr. Mark Wanlass. He is a researcher at the National Center for Photovoltaics, a division of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, ( aka NREL).

Al Gore and the We Campaign - Zero Emissions Electricity and Vehicles in 10 years

admin — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:14:48 -0700

Watch the latest video here.

Include it on you website NOW!

http://www.youtube.com/user/WeCanSolveIt

http://www.wecansolveit.org/page/invite/repoweramerica

Brendan Condon - World Environment Day address

admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:18:24 -0700

City of Port Phillip World Environment Day Community Forum
5th June 2008

Brendan Condon - Managing Director of the Not For Profit Climate Positive talks about climate change science, why 450ppm or 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels is too high because it gives us ocean acidification and a greater than 5 metre sea level rise.

Adriana Downie talks about Best Energies pyrolysis gasifier and making bio char (Terra Preta)

admin — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:20:51 -0700

Listen to Podcast Scott Bilby: This morning on Beyond Zero we are interviewing Adriana Downey, Technical Manger at Best Energies. Her company is involved in pyrolysis, synthesis gas and biomass waste management. These provide benefits such as reduced waste, cleaner energy, improved soil quality and carbon sequestration; potentially music to our ears here at Beyond Zero.

24 hour Solar at a price we can afford - Keith Lovegrove - Wizard Power - Australian National University

admin — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 04:26:01 -0700

The June Discussion group expert speaker was Dr Keith Lovegrove from ANU Solar group.

To Listen to Keith's Presentation download the podcast here
The presentation he spoke to -(Keith guides listeners through it) is available here

Interview with Arnold Goldman of Bright Source - A world leading solar developer discusses his solar thermal technology

admin — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:01:41 -0700

Scott Bilby: This morning on Beyond Zero we're interviewing Arnold Goldman. Arnold Goldman is the Chairman and founder of BrightSource Energy which designs and builds large scale solar plants. He was also was the chairman & founder of Luz (loo-sh) International which designed, constructed, financed, and operated the world's nine largest Solar Electric Generating Systems (SEGS) in the Mojave Desert which, at the time, generated 90 percent of the world's solar electricity. Mr.

Interview with Philip Sutton - The Case for a Sustainability Emergency (Part 2)

admin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:32:34 -0700

Transcription follows...
Listen to Podcast Jason Bradford: Alright, we are back. Thanks for being here, everybody. This is a really important show. I want to thank my guest, Philip Sutton, for being back. This is March 3 where we live but it's March4th where you are. Right, Philip?

Philip Sutton:That's right.

More Carbon for Soils More Carbon for Crops - Carbon Negative Farming with Bio Char

admin — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:06:39 -0700

Listen to Podcast Scott Bilby: We've covered the subject of Terra Preta soils in the Amazon on previous shows. For those listeners that haven't heard about it you can learn more from our podcasts on our website at beyondzeroemissions.org. You can look for the interviews that we've done with Johannes Lehman of Cornell University and Adriana Downie of Best Energies.

S David Freeman former head of the biggest US utility company tells us we can go to Zero Emissions for baseload & peak power now

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:49:45 -0700

Listen to Podcast Scott Bilby: This morning on the show we are very pleased to be interviewing S. David Freeman, American engineer and attorney. He has had a 50 year career in the U.S. energy industry, holding key positions in power utilities and helping successive US administrations develop and implement energy and environmental policies.

Interview with Philip Sutton - The Case for a Sustainability Emergency (Part 1)

admin — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:06:55 -0700

Transcription follows...
Listen to Podcast
These are not choices amongst many options, but a necessity for life. It requires a “crash programme” — as quickly as possible — to thoroughly decarbonise the economy in a time period measured in years to a decade or so, not decades to a century or more. - Climate Code Red report

Jason Bradford hosts The Reality Report, broadcast on KZYX&Z in Mendocino County, CA.

Dr. Wieslaw Maslowski predicted a 2013 Ice Free Summer Arctic five years ago - now he says that may have been too conservative

admin — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:06:09 -0700

Listen to Podcast Matthew Wright: On the phone we have Wieslaw Maslowski from the US Postgraduate Naval School. Good morning Dr Maslowski?

David Mills talks about the global political environment and his baseload solar thermal technology

admin — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:32:10 -0700

Listen to podcast Interview with Dr David Mills former Sydney University academic now solar entrepreneur with US venture capital he has founded Ausra, a California-based company that develops zero carbon utilities scale solar thermal power plants.

Australian of the Year 2007, Tim Flannery talks bio char and why we need to move into the renewable age

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:58:07 -0700

Listen to podcast Scott Bilby: This morning on Beyond Zero we will be interviewing Dr Tim Flannery. Flannery has made contributions of international significance to the fields of palaeontology, homology and nature conservation and to the understanding of science in the broader community. His work has received international acclaim.

Can we live with zero emissions?

admin — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:24:46 -0700

On February 21, the interim Garnaut Climate Change Review was released. It states: "It is in Australia's interest for the world to adopt a strong and effective position on climate change mitigation."

Drawing down carbon - Johannes Lehmann of Cornell University talks Bio Char

admin — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:54:55 -0800

Podcast Available Matthew Wright: Following on from our interview last week with Adriana Downie from Best Energies, we've got doctor Johannes Lehmann, whose an associate professor of soil fertility management and soil bio-chemistry at New York's Cornell University.

Ken Caldeira - Carnegie Institute - Stabilizing Carbon Emissions Only Option

admin — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:35:13 -0800

Podcast Available Miwa Tominaga: This morning on Beyond Zero we're interviewing Ken Caldeira of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Sweden aims for half of all energy from renewables by 2020

admin — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:00:46 -0800

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL0545046820080305

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden will aim to get nearly half its energy
from renewable sources by 2020 as part of an EU-wide plan, Energy and
Enterprise Minister Maud Olofsson said on Wednesday.

Olofsson said in Washington that Sweden had been tasked with increasing
its share of renewable energy to 49 percent from a current 40 percent as
part of binding targets set by the European Union.

"This would be the highest share in the world," Olofsson said in the
text of a speech.

UK Zero Carbon laws - all new homes to be rated on Green Credentials from 1 May

admin — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:59:17 -0800

The Government's drive towards zero carbon housing took a major step
forward today with the announcement that all new homes are to be rated
on their green credentials from 1 May.

A rating against the Code for Sustainable Homes, which measures nine
categories of sustainable design including energy, water and waste, will
be required for all new homes. Homes which exceed the sustainable
standards in existing Building Regulations will be awarded up to six
stars. Those homes that have not been assessed against the Code will
score a nil-rating.

James Hansen - No more conventional coal and carbon stabilisation below 350ppm

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:46:13 -0800

Podcast available Interview with James Hansen - Nasa Goddard Institute of Space Studies - James Hansen on Coal, "pressure to in effect bulldoze those plants" on today's level of carbon, "385ppm is really going to produce a significantly different planet." Safe Greenhouse gas levels according to Hansen are down "at least to the 350ppm level"

Brown vow on climate change battle

admin — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:23:03 -0800

Gordon Brown pledged to make Britain a world leader in the battle
against global warming, with a green "technological revolution" which he
said could create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the UK.

In his first major speech on the environment since becoming Prime
Minister, Mr Brown hinted strongly that he is ready to extend the
Government's target of a 60% cut in Britain's greenhouse gas emissions
by 2050, revealing that he has asked an independent committee of experts
to look at the possibility of an 80% goal.

He announced talks with supermarkets and other retailers over the

World record to power industry

admin — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:20:02 -0800

Australia produces more than 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide in generating
power for each person per year, compared with 9 tonnes for Americans and
2 tonnes for the Chinese.

The new database, called CARMA, Carbon Monitoring for Action, has been
compiled by the Washington-based Center for Global Development, an
independent think tank on issues related to global development.

Australia ranks seventh in the world in terms of its total carbon
dioxide emissions from power stations, well ahead of countries such as
Italy, Britain, France and South Korea.

Ausra to produce 177MW on just 1x1mile.

admin — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:11:19 -0800

Pacific Gas and Electric, (PG&E) has entered into a contract to buy 177
megawatts of power from a solar thermal power plant that will be built
by Ausra.

The power plant will be located in San Luis Obispo county in central
California and provide, roughly, enough power for 60,000 homes. Ausra
has filed applications to build the plant with the California Energy
Commission and hopes to have the plant up and generating power in 2010.

This won't be the last solar thermal contract PG&E will sign. PG&E says
it plans to get a gigawatt worth of power from solar thermal systems in

US Naval expert predicts summer blue arctic oceans from 2013

admin — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:35:21 -0700

The Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that waves briefly lapped along two long-imagined Arctic shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northern Sea Route over Russia.

Over all, the floating ice dwindled to an extent unparalleled in a century or more, by several estimates.

Zero Emissions to stem extreme Arctic and Antarctic Melting.

admin — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 02:49:49 -0700

We've heard the stories about the Arctics rapid melt, which could see it ice free by 2020, as opposed to the previously pessimistic assessments that showed this possibly occurring by 2050. Now NASA has released a study that shows a similar situation occurring in Antarctica. At the same time we should be aware that a rapid melt of the Arctic circle, will bring warmer water to the pole which is adjacent to Greenland, and cause even more rapid melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

New study shows how solar power can provide 90 percent of the energy needs in the United States

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:44:55 -0700

A Palo Alto start-up called Ausra said Monday that it has raised $40 million to develop, build and operate solar power plants.

The money comes from Silicon Valley venture-capital clean-technology heavyweights, Khosla Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Both Vinod Khosla and Ray Lane of KPCB are on Ausra's board.

Concentrating On Solar Thermal as a Solution to Climate Change

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:13:11 -0700

Slide 1
(Right, we have slide 1.) Good afternoon everyone again. Look, I’d like to take a bit of your time to tell you a little more about solar thermal power, which is a topic that has been fairly quiet over many years but is just now getting a lot more attention and some of you may know about it and some of you may not but let me tell you a bit more about it. Let’s jump to slide 2. We got slide 2? (yes)

Slide 2

Protesters block coal supply to Loy Yang Power station

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 17:19:45 -0700

Loy Yang power station is operating at half capacity this morning as APEC protesters chained themselves to a conveyor belt taking coal into one of the furnaces.

Activists Invade Gunns Headquaters and draw attention to corrupt Tasmanian Government

admin — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:43:29 -0700

Protesters from the Huon Valley Environment Centre and the group Still Wild Still Threatened have climbed onto the roof of Gunn's head office to highlight concerns over the company's proposed pulp mill. The three activists were escorted from the roof by police.

Another group of protesters occupied the office. No arrests took place

Spokeswoman, Ula Majewski, says the campaign against the pulp mill has reached a critical point. "Tasmania now is in a state of emergency," she said.

Plane Stupid - Direct Action Environment Group launches with Action in Melbourne City Centre

matthew — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 19:32:47 -0700

In a significant move to highlight the Australian Government's poor environmental performance, actions have taken place across Australia, Sunday 26th August. Travel Agents selling dirt cheap holiday packages have been targeted as representatives of the low-cost carriers business which is stimulating increasing demand on the environment with no consideration for the emissions produced by cheap, short-haul flights.

Texas Windpower surge to 4,500MW Requests to bring online 28,000MW of new capacity.

admin — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 19:26:13 -0700

Hot on the heals of billionaire oilman Boone Pickens announcing a 4000MW wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, Texas' biggest power company TXU has just announced it will build a 3000MW wind farm in Briscoe County. What's What is more, there are requests for more than 28000MW of new wind capacity, in Texas. At the end of 2007 Texas will have 4500MW of wind power. Many of the projects are expected to use storage technologies such as large scale compressed air.

James Hansen Nasa - Several Metre Sea Level Rise Zero Emission Conference - Melbourne Australia 2007

matthew — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 05:07:56 -0700

"Why fast action on climate change is needed"

James Hansen - NASA - Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Presented to the "Target Zero" Conference, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia on 30 June 2007
Transcript of presentation

Slide 2

Michael Raupach, CSIRO, addresses spurious claims of the documentary-like "Great Global Warming Swindle"

admin — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 02:49:14 -0700

Swindle confounded by truth

Michael Raupach

THE GREAT Global Warming Swindle, airing tonight on ABC television, is sending a shiver of excitement through those for whom global warming is somewhere between a bad dream and a dangerous plot. Can we breathe a sigh of relief and forget climate change?

To assess this, let's start with what can be called the consensus view. Through careful evaluation of evidence, most climate scientists have reached three main conclusions.

James Hansen, NASA climatologist, live at the Zero Emissions Conference, Melbourne, Australia

matthew — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:17:05 -0700

The Zero Emission Network and Beyond Zero Emissions have brought together a program of guest speakers from around the world on climate change science, zero emission renewable energy and successful campaigning methods at the Zero Emissions Conference in Melbourne.

James Hansen, speaking via conference link from Sweden, spoke about the latest scientific predictions on climate change.

Conference audio and slide shows available here

Adelaide City Council evaluates 2020 zero emission target

matthew — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:55:00 -0700

City Council eyes zero emissions target

Adelaide City Council will consider whether it can achieve a target of zero emissions for its operations by 2020.

It has requested an update of an environmental sustainability report which outlines what the Council has already achieved.

Councillor Susan Clearihan has requested the update also outline the measures required to achieve a carbon neutral target.

Portable LiDAR unit boosts windfarm evaluation

matthew — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 01:46:47 -0700

Portable LiDAR unit boosts windfarm evaluation

May 31, 2007 Wind farm planning and development will benefit from a deal just signed to market a portable LiDAR unit capable of accurately measuring wind speeds at heights of up to 150m. Designed and built by defense specialists QinetiQ, the unit will be brought to the market by Scottish consultancy Natural Power. It will be a key tool in the evaluation of prospective wind farm sites.

New LEDs offer simple replacement of fluorescent tubes

matthew — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 01:50:55 -0700

With over half a billion fluorescent light globes disposed of each year in the U.S. alone, there is no doubting the significance of a product that allows existing fluorescent fixtures to be converted to Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) by simply changing the bulb. The world's first true replacement of glass fluorescent lighting tubes, the EverLED TR from LEDdynamics utilizes the existing fluorescent ballast, while achieving the equivalent light output of the tube it replaces.

Renewables account for 18% of global energy market

matthew — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 20:53:36 -0700

Investors pour unprecedented billions into renewable energy

PARIS, France, June 21, 2007 (ENS) - Investment capital flowing into renewable energies such as wind power climbed from $80 billion in 2005 to a record $100 billion in 2006, according to a new report from the UN Environment Programme, UNEP. The trend analysis cites climate change concerns, increasing government support, and high oil prices as reasons for the boom.

Google takes on zero emissions goal with year-end target

matthew — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:29:21 -0700

Reducing Our Footprint to Zero

As our business grows, so does our impact on the Earth’s atmosphere. We have a responsibility to address this impact, and are committed to reducing it as much as possible. We will achieve carbon neutrality by:

1. Increasing the energy efficiency of our own operations,
2. Aggressively pursuing clean and renewable sources of energy,
3. Purchasing carbon offsets for the emissions we can't reduce directly.

Efficiency

New Zealand 100% renewables aim

matthew — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 21:12:20 -0700

Wind - PM Plugs Wind Power, As Meridian Gears Up For New Projects
13 June 2007
New Zealand Energy & Environment Business Week

The Economist: beyond the Prius - plug-in hybrid vehicles and European diesel hybrids

matthew — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 02:03:09 -0700

Hybrid cars
Beyond the Prius

Jun 14th 2007
From The Economist print edition
Toyota's Prius hybrid stole a march on the car industry. What comes next?

WHETHER in Los Angeles, Tokyo or London, the Prius, Toyota's trailblazing petrol-electric hybrid car, has become a common sight since the second (and much-improved) version was launched three years ago. The Prius has since achieved cult status among image-conscious Hollywood stars and greener-than-thou politicians. Last week Toyota said it had passed the milestone of manufacturing more than 1m hybrid vehicles.

Power grid fuels hybrid electric cars

matthew — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 04:06:46 -0700

The Wall Street Journal - Politics & Economics: U.S. Finds Electric
Power Grid Can Fuel Fleets of Plug-In Cars
By John J. Fialka
11 December 2006

WASHINGTON -- The nation's existing electric power grid could fuel as
many as 180 million electric cars, a Department of Energy study
estimates.

The study, being released today by the department's Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory, is the federal government's first look at the
grid's capacity to handle the demands of so-called plug-in hybrids,
which can be operated as an all-electric car for most daily commutes.

World's biggest 4000 MW wind farm to be built in Texas

matthew — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:09:31 -0700

City transport fleet to go carbon neutral

matthew — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:58:30 -0700

Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth will be screened four times in Brisbane parks as part of the council's efforts to influence climate change.

The movie screenings are part of a $119 million City Smart campaign.

Aspects of Brisbane City Council's City Smart environment sustainability policy include:

- $1 million carbon offset program for the council's vehicle fleet;

- $3.5 million to plant one million trees in the Oxley Creek catchment area; and

Californian utility rejects cheap power from polluting coal plant

matthew — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:00:04 -0700

California utility rejects cheap power from polluting coal plant

A small utility near Lake Tahoe's north shore thought it had the answer to providing long-term affordable energy - coal.

But after an outpouring of public criticism and political pressure, the Truckee Donner Public Utility District voted to reject a 50-year contract to obtain energy from a planned coal plant in Utah.